More Families Not Insuring Children Through Jobs

HEATHER STAUFFER

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More moderate and low-income families are turning to free, public insurance to protect their children's health, a new study shows.

Parents in those families are choosing not to include children in their employer-provided health insurance, likely for the significant cost savings, according to the study by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which has one of the largest pediatric research institutes in the country.

Among such families, it found the percentage of children in Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program rose from about 23 percent in 2008 to 30 percent in 2013.

The new findings come at a time when doubts have been raised about whether a Republican-controlled Congress, under President-elect Donald Trump, would renew funding for CHIP. It is funded only until Sept. 30, 2017.

"Our study echoes the stories physicians are hearing in their clinics across the country," said Dr. David Rubin, director of PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "CHIP and Medicaid have become the backstop for providing health insurance coverage to children in many working families."

Doug Strane, the study's lead author, said by 2013, getting family coverage through a job cost about $5,000 a year, compared to about $1,000 for an employee-only plan.

"It does come down to basic math for these families," he said.

Daniel Sosa, who works in Lancaster helping people get insurance, said splitting coverage is common and can save families money.

"The public plan is most times free," he said.

On the rise

In Pennsylvania, Medicaid coverage is free, and CHIP coverage is offered on a sliding scale for those who don't qualify for Medicaid.

A three-person household earning $41,933 or less would get the child covered free in CHIP, while one earning $58,061 would pay about $84 a month, and one earning $63,303 or more would pay the full monthly premium of $239.

Those are based on 2016 definitions of the federal poverty line.

As of November, 168,238 Pennsylvania children were covered by CHIP.

The PolicyLab study was not able to show individual state results. It also didn't include the large Medicaid expansion started under President Barack Obama's health care plan, which Pennsylvania accepted in 2015.

However, a recent report issued by Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families said the number of uninsured children in Pennsylvania fell from 147,000 in 2013 to 111,000 in 2015 - dropping the uninsured rate in that population from 5.2 percent to 4.1 percent.

It also found that about 46 percent of children nationally were covered by job-based insurance, and about 36 percent by Medicaid and CHIP.